Brammo Gets Dirty With Six Speeds

Updated 1:30 p.m. EDT: Now with video!

Electric motorcycles are taking a big step forward.

Brammo announced this morning that it is rolling out a new line of electric dirt bikes featuring six-speed transmissions, an unprecedented development that promises to boost performance and increase range. Until now, electric motorcycles have used direct drive, providing optimal acceleration or top speed but rarely both.

By introducing multiple gears, the Oregon company?s line of Engage and Encite motorcycles can offer wheelie-inducing acceleration and grin-inducing top speed. Company boss Craig Bramscher claims its top-tier motocrosser rivals the performance of a 250cc four-stroke gasoline motorcycle and hopes to prove it this weekend at the big MiniMotoSX race in Las Vegas.

?The acceleration of these bikes is just amazing,? he says. ?We?ve had some professional riders on it and they?ve been blown away.?

The electric motor and six-speed transmission are an integrated unit. Production versions will feature cast, not billet, aluminum cases and tidier welding. Note the hydraulic clutch.

Dirt bikes are a new direction for Brammo, which has until now focused on street bikes with the rather pedestrian Enertia and the sporty Empulse. The company also dabbles with road racing and recently decided to get dirty.

The new lineup includes four models slated for production early next year. The Engage MX is a motocrosser. The Engage SMS is a street-legal supermoto while the SMR is strictly for the track. The Encite MMX Pro is a race-ready motocrosser. Each features an integrated motor and transmission with a hydraulic clutch. Italian firm SMRE Engineering developed the hardware and licensed it exclusively to Brammo.

?We are delighted to have Brammo as our strategic partner,? Samuele Mazzini, founder and CEO of SMRE, said in a statement. ?This alliance will see the [integrated electric transmission] integrated into Brammo motorcycles and enjoyed by riders all around the world.?

Bramscher offers many promises but few technical and performance specs because ?we?re still doing a lot of testing.? All the bikes will feature steel frames with aluminum swingarms and components from the likes of Brembo, Nissin and Marzocchi. Brammo is finalizing the styling, and Bramshcer says the bikes will look more polished than the prototypes in the pics. They?ll feature beefier battery boxes and cast aluminum motor and transmission cases instead of the prototypes? cool billet pieces.

Among the details still to be determined is how big the battery pack will be. Bramscher said we?ll see something in the 2 to 3 kilowatt-hour range, enough for 60 to 80 miles on the street and roughly 30 minutes or so on a track.

?You want to be able to race 20 to 30 minutes at wide open throttle and have something left at the end,? he said. ?That?s what we?re shooting for.?

All of the bikes will feature swappable batteries, and the packs will weigh something less than 40 pounds (No word on the weight of the bikes, but Bramscher says they?ll be competitive with gas machines). They?ll recharge in two to three hours at 110 volts; quick charging is under consideration. Brammo is building its own lithium-ion batteries and wants to make them cheap enough to allow people to buy a spare.

There?s no word yet on when or if any of this tech will make it into the Enertia and Empulse, but you?d have to think it?s a sure thing if Brammo wants to keep those machines relevant. Rolling out a line of? motocrossers suggests Brammo has its sights set squarely on Zero Motorcycles, a fellow pioneer in the new world of electric motorcycles. Bramscher has bigger game in mind.

?We?re competing against Honda and KTM,? he says in all seriousness.

To that end, Brammo is entering an Engage MX and an Encite MXX Pro at MiniMotoSX this weekend. It also plans to have the latest iteration of the Empulse RR road racer at Infineon Raceway near San Francisco for the opening round of the TTXGP electric motorcycle grand prix.

?We?re in the motorcycle business,? he says. ?Anywhere you see motorcycles, we?ll be there.?

Photos: Brammo

The street-legal Engage SMS. Look for a sticker price of $11,995. The track-only version will cost two grand less. That?s the Enertia on the left in the background with the Empulse next to it.

The Engage MX motocrosser is expected to cost $9,995. The bodywork on all of the bikes is still a work in progress, as is the battery box.? Production bikes will get cast aluminum motor and transmission cases.

Brammo hasn?t announced a price for the Encite MMX Pro.

Source: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/brammo-six-speed-tranmission/

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